Still chugging along
Sorry for the blogging hiatus again. I have been meaning to blog again, I have had many topics in my head, yet it’s hard to find time to sit down and actually blog.
What’s up in Lowfatlady land?
LM is almost three. He will be three in three weeks. Craziness. He is a smart and funny kid. He still eats small quantities of food or skips dinner altogether sometimes, but we are doing a lot better in that the times he doesn’t eat anything are getting less and less.
Right now we are tackling potty training. I have been hesitant because of his mega constipation issues. He has been going pee pee in the potty at daycare for a while now though only recently has it become more consistent. They are going to move him to the three year old room in the next couple of weeks and some of his teachers have mentioned how we should be working on potty training at home so he won’t notice that he is the only one not doing it and feeling down about it. They suggested the cold turkey going straight into underwear approach on a long weekend so that is what we went with. I read online about the three day potty training method so I assumed it would be like that. We put him in undies friday afternoon after daycare and he did pretty well that afternoon. Saturday he did great. By sunday we were all tired and he started resisting. It didn’ t go well. Monday I talked to his main teacher about it since she knows what she is doing with potty training and she gave me some suggestions. So now we are taking him every hour and giving lots of praise and staying positive. She said it could take a couple of weeks. He does pretty well with peeing on the potty, but going poop is another story. I hear it’s harder to teach and I’m sure his constipation issues make it worse. So we are working on it. LM sometimes refuses to wash his hands after so the way we have been getting around it is to have a bubble party which is washing his hands and just having fun with the bubbles or wiping his hands with an antibacterial wipe when he won’t wash his hands at all. At the end of the day when he is tired he is less likely to do well with the potty and to try so we have ended up in diapers around 7-8pm with bed at 8. I know we aren’t supposed to go back and forth with diapers and underwear but it’s pretty close to bed time and by the end of the day both of us are ready to have a break. So fingers crossed things keep progressing.
I’m still working out and counting calories. I stopped running as I wasn’t enjoying it anymore and got into the exercise classes at my fitness center. I do step aerobics on Mondays, a cardio/strength training class on Thursdays, and a cardio mix class on Fridays. I used to go to the gym on my own on Wednesday instead of the class on Thursday, but I really enjoy the class atmosphere, I burn more calories, and I want to learn/get into strength training so I started going to the Thursday class. My favorite class is step aerobics and I’m getting pretty good at it. I’m getting more of the advanced steps though it still takes me a little bit to get the more complicated ones. I would like to add another set of risers to my step, but I’m short so having two sets makes me out of breath more and harder to do the more complex moves.
I am still eating more to lose weight. I upped my calories from 1270 to 1700, but then with the help of my fitbit realized that 1700 was a little too high so on days I don’t work out I eat about 1500 and on the days I work out I eat about 1700. I have lost about 47 pounds so far and I am about three pounds away from my first goal weight. My ultimate goal weight is 13 pounds away, but I am wondering if I should just forget the number and focus more on strength training.
This month has been hard on my family as we have lost two family members within about three weeks. They were relatives I wasn’t especially close with, but still. That paired with toilet training stress, me desperately needing a vacation, and AF right around the corner is making for a cranky Lowfatlady who is starting to feel overwhelmed and just done with things when everything piles on. I am usually fine again a few hours later but ugh I need a break.
Allergies
We have thought that LM had seasonal allergies for a while. Last year we just gave him a bath a lot during the summer to get rid of the pollen and outdoor allergies he got on him from playing outside. It seemed to work pretty well. The other week we were at a sick visit at the pediatrician’s office with a different doctor. She suggested that we try children’s zyrtec once a day to help with his allergies and prevent more ear infections. I was ready to give it a shot and to hopefully prevent more ear infections.
The first bottle we got was grape flavored and he hated the flavor. I had gotten grape because the amoxocillian was bubble gum flavored and I was trying to give him something different. He refused to take it and covered his mouth. We then found a bubble gum flavored one he tolerated more. He slept through the night and it seemed to help. Though recently in the mornings he has been a lot more fussy, cranky, and argumentative. This morning it was awful. He did not want to eat breakfast or get dressed which is not fun when I was trying to get out of the house and make sure he at least ate and drank something. I wondered if the ear infection isn’t completly gone.
However, when I got to work I googled zyrtec and side effects on children. One of the very first posts I came across was a huge amount of mom’s saying that their children had negative behavior changes on zyrtec. They because unhappy, cranky, and aggressive. Once they stopped the zyrtec their normal kids came back. That got me to thinking if it’s the zyrtec causing the issue. I did schedule a dr’s appointment for tomorrow afternoon to check his ears, but we also decided we aren’t going to give him his zyrtec tonight. If he is a million times better tomorrow morning than that will mean to me that I am not going to give it to him again. *fingers crossed tomorrow morning is better*
BMR/TDEE
So I have been doing a lot of reading about BMR and tdee recently. BMR is your basal metabolic rate which is the amount of calories your body needs just to survive if you were lying in bed all day or in a coma. TDEE is your total daily energy expenditure or basically your BMR plus your daily activities plus all the exercise you do.
I have been reading about this because I have wanted to up my calories for a really long time. While losing weight I always used the calorie goal MyFitnessPal gave me. However I have been at 1270 calories for a really long time (mfp wanted me at 1200) and I was not happy about it. I always was hungry and thinking about how to fit things in my daily amount.
So I found a BMR/tdee calculator and figured it out. My BMR is 1370. My tdee is in the 2000’s. Because I am not consistent with my exercise I figured out my tdee for sedentary minus 15% (if you ate at your tdee you would maintain) and then eat my exercise calories back from my fitbit and my heart rate monitor. Normally you don’t eat exercise calories back with your tdee. I basically just try to net my BMR and not go over my tdee.
I have been eating this way for one week. It was hard at first trust in the process and up my eating by at least 200 calories but I am trying. I can’t eat 1200 calories forever. Supposedly when you first start eating like this your body gains weight and that it takes a couple of weeks to start losing again. I have had a couple of high sodium days recently so my weight wouldn’t be accurate now anyways. I am going to try weighing myself on Wednesday to see how it’s all going. So far I like it. I can eat more, have felt more full, and like that it feels more sustainable. I am being conservative too. If I was fully going with it I could be eating 1900 calories every day, but I am not that active every day or ready to eat that every day. Hopefully this all works out and doesn’t set me back a month. I am giving it until at least after my period which should be here in about two weeks which should give me some idea how it’s going.
Soy
This weekend was not fun. LM was very constipated all weekend. We give him juice (1oz prune, 3oz apple, plus miralax) every night, but this wasn’t cutting it. Part of the problem I believe was that he had had too much dairy recently. He had been doing good with getting extra juice if he starts having a problem, but not this time. We gave him some little tummies laxiative which normally does the trick on saturday, but by sunday night he was still having trouble. Because of this he was cranky and not eating well. No fun for everyone. He finally went on monday around lunch after another dose of little tummies and more juice. Thank goodness.
After going through that I didn’t want it to happen again so I started thinking about switching a lot of the milk products he eats over to soy products to see if that made a difference with his constipation and his eating. I went to two grocery stores yesterday to see what I could find. The first store was a bust, they barely had anything. The second was a nicer store and they had a bunch of stuff. I bought some silk soy yogurt, some soy cheese slices, cheese shreeded, some soy ice cream, and some dairy free cream cheese. I was a little bit nervous with how he would do since he is already a picky eater and I know some of the stuff probably tastes different, but I want to give it a shot.
This morning I heard LM wake up before my alarm around 5:15am. I let him lay in his crib until my alarm went off at 5:30. When I went in his room to get him he was cranky already. He wanted me to come in, but he didn’t want to get out of his bed. I think he was tired, and probably hungry because he didn’t eat much the last few days. I tried to get him out of his bed, but he was on the far side of the bed where my short arms couldn’t reach him. So I got hubs to get him. He started throwing a fit about wanting to be back in his bed. I said no, it’s time to go downstairs and wake up so I walked downstairs and sat on the couch like we do every single morning. He threw a fit from that moment with yelling and screaming and crying for almost the whole morning until I walked out the door to go to work. I feel like I had a little bit of traumatic stress. I had just woken up and then boom screaming toddler who is upset/mad about everything. Not fun.
I tried giving him the soy cream cheese, but he is too smart for his own good and it probably wasn’t the best morning to try it. He knew that it wasn’t the right container for his cream cheese and kept yelling that he didn’t want this one he wanted his old cream chesee. Ugh. We finally cream cheesed one side of the bagel with the new one and the other side with the old stuff and he started eating the side with the good cream cheese. I tried the new stuff and it is pretty gross. Bleh. I really hope the other stuff is better. I’m nervous because I bought some shredded cheese that is the same brand of the cream cheese. I hope they both aren’t bad. I just hope I can find some alternatives that help him with his constipation that are tolerable to him. He is so picky and just wants what he is used too. THough when I make his lunches he doesn’t see the brand of cheese I use so hopefully as long as it tastes good I will be ok. *fingers crossed*
HRM
Today I googled around and found a walking training program. Ever since having my cold I have been lower on energy and a bit less into running. I found one that was an interval program based off of heart rates. I did the math and figured out the right heart rate for me, but it seemed a like a lot of switching back and forth. I probably won’t follow that plan, but it got me thinking about heart rates and how they work with exercise. I have always wondered if I push myself enough in my work outs.
When I got to the gym I hopped on the treadmill and started walking. I upped the speed some to see where my heart rate was. I was surprised to see the speed I had been walking at had my heart rate sorta low. I kept upping the speed until I was walking around where I ran my slow run – 4 mph and I still wasn’t in a really high heart rate zone. It really surprised me that I was able to walk at this speed and made me realize my work outs have been too slow. I also enjoyed it more than I have running recently. At the end of my work out I felt like I had worked harder and better than recently. It got me to thinking about working out in my correct heart rate more and trying walking more and seeing how it goes.
About LM
I feel like I haven’t written about LM in ages so here is a post all about him. Right now he is two and a half.
Likes
Loves to sing. Most times you will find him playing and singing songs. He knows most if not all the words too.
His favorite song is wheels on the bus. He will sing this song over and over all day. He can turn anything into wipers to do the motions on this song.
His favorite shape is a circle because he can pretend it is the money on the bus.
He loves watching YouTube videos of children’s songs. He can watch an hour of just different versions of wheels on the bus. We try not to let him watch that much, but it happens sometimes.
His favorite color is blue. He has to eat his yogurt with his blue spoon.
His favorite piece of clothing is his red zip up hoodie. When he won’t wear anything else, he will always wear his hoodie.
His favorite foods are hotdogs, ketchup, chocolate, noodles, and cheese. He will dip anything into ketchup.
He is very sweet and is always ready for a hug. He will give you a kiss and say I love you if you ask for it.
When he gets a boo boo kisses make everything better.
Playing under the kitchen table is more fun then actually eating dinner.
He is big into imaginative play and is very verbal.
He loves to do things himself and to help mommy and daddy
Trains and toy cars
Jumping on the bed
Puree fruit/beg pouches. This is how I get his vegetables in him and he will eat the pouches when he won’t eat anything else
Dislikes
Eating. He eats such small portions of food at meals.
When he takes too big of a bite and there is still food sticking out
Going poop as he gets constipated from his favorite dairy foods
Getting dressed. It is a huge ordeal every morning, which makes it hard when I am trying to get out of the house for work.
New clothes. He rather wear the same pieces over and over and throws a fit when say a new hat or fleece is brought into the mix.
Transitions
Waking up fully in the morning
Not being able to do something on his own
When the TV isn’t on a baby channel
Observation
While at the gym the other day I got to talking with one of the head people. She mentioned that there is a marathon coming up and to prepare the gym is going to have running classes and training sessions which sounds really neat. I wonder if the times will work with my schedule though. While talking to her she mentioned the lady who is gonna run the classes. I mentioned maybe she could give me an individual session and watch me run and she said yes! She is going to watch me run tomorrow over my lunch break and hopefully give me some pointers. I hope it goes well. I am looking forward to it!
Hello Flo
This past week I have been so hungry. I’ve been trying to keep to my calorie goal, but I kept over-snacking and going over by a bit. I was feeling frustrated since I was still two pounds above where I was at the beginning of December. Friday afternoon it was time to exercise, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I was tired, but made myself walk down there and do it anyways. I ran for about 1.3 miles and then just walked the last bit for a total of thirty minutes. I tried. Then on satuday AF showed up! Ah ha!
Since exercising this is the second time I have been able to get her on my own with out any medicines or birth control. I’m pretty proud of myself. I seem to get her every two months. My last one was in November. I have an app that tracks my period and there was about 13 days less between this cycle and the one before so maybe it’s regulating itself. Or maybe I will just get one every two months which isn’t horrible. The really interesting thing though is that through weighing myself every single day I have noticed that when I do get my period that very day I lose weight. I have googled around and it seems like most people get bloated and gain weight when their period comes and then they lose weight when it’s over. I still get bloated, but I lose weight when she shows up. Like my hormones build up and have been waiting for her and she finally shows and then they go normal again. I weighed myself today and I am down 1.7 pounds from saturday. So I am now back to where I was at the beginning of December. It seems like every time I miss a period I gain about a pound of water or hormonal weight and then when she finally shows up it goes away. So if I have my period every two months I am always going to have that much more water/hormonal weight. Does anyone have anything similar happen to them? I am hoping that when she goes away I don’t gain back quickly and I am able to get to my small goal weight which is only about 1.6 pounds away. *fingers crossed* I’m going to try to do an exercise video this afternoon to help with keeping the calories down this weekend.
We are supposed to get freezing rain today and it is really cold. I hope wherever you guys are you stay safe and warm.
Last day of the year
I can’t believe today is the last day of the year. I started exercising and losing weight in this year. I hope that it continues into 2014.
Since my husband is off and I am working he went grocery shopping for me and picked up a few dinners for the week. I didn’t specify what to buy. He decided to get some things that we haven’t had in a while. However, there was a reason we hadn’t had them in a while – they are all high calorie. Last night we had the highest calorie one because I had exercised and walked a lot that day. It was a chicken tortillini. Before working out/watching what I eat I thought nothing of eating half the container of pasta. However, now when I look at that package it is supposed to be five servings worth. It isn’t enough food for five servings, but that is what it’s listed as. Some other dinners he got were chicken pot pie and turkey kelbasa which isn’t too bad. I was like there is a reason I haven’t been buying that stuff, because I have a hard time only eating a small amount when I’m hungry of that stuff and it’s high calorie. I made him feel bad like he got all the wrong stuff and I feel bad about it. Now he feels like he doesn’t want to go grocery shopping. Maybe if I give him a list and am more specific next time it will go better. I will have to think of something to make him feel better about going grocery shopping again because I find it very helpful when he goes.
I had run about 30 minutes on the treadmill earlier in the day and I still felt guilty about eating a little over 800 calories in pasta. So after LM went to bed I did some of an exercise video that kicked my butt. I was tired because it was the end of the day and tired from running so it wasn’t the best workout, but in the end I had about 150 calories left for the day. That isn’t bad. I said I ran about 30 minutes because towards the end of my running I got a phone call from daycare. They let me know LM pooped on the potty. That is pretty awesome. I wish he would do it at home too. They say it’s the peer pressure of everyone going on the potty at daycare.
For new years eve I think we are doing pizza for dinner and staying in. We normally do sushi, but we wanted to get something that LM likes as well. I wonder if veggie pizza has less calories than pepperoni. I doubt I will be awake at midnight. Maybe I will make it till 10:30. I was joking with my husband and told him maybe I will just watch the Sprout new years special since it will be on at 8pm lol.
I hope everyone has an amazing new year!
Saturday exercise
For my Saturday exercise video I found a zumba class on YouTube. I think they were from England because of their accents. I liked listening to them. There was a younger guy leading the class. Right before the song started he would break down some of the moves of the song which was helpful. I would do that video again and thought about leaving a comment on the video.
Exercising on Saturday really does help with keeping my weight steady during the weekend. Thank goodness for that. I am only about two pounds away from where I was at the beginning of December.
I ran on Friday with level one of the hill program and I hope it will help me to do well whenever I get outside. I ran 22 minutes, but then I accidentally hit the off button with my arm. Doh. I was going to do 30 so I guess it wasn’t too bad. So I just finished off my gym time with some strength training.
Tales Of My Follies 